THE 1960s, the decade that became a state of mind, is finally over. With each new terrorist horror in London, as we learn more and more about British homeboy terrorists, it seems safe to declare that age of innocence is dead.

It was an age where wide-eyed all-you-need-is-love romanticism inevitably spawned moral and cultural relativism. But when boys, born in British hospitals, develop allegiances that demand death to their countrymen, you know that the utopian vision of multiculturalism, urged on us with the best of intentions, has not gone as planned.

Three years ago, to suggest that multiculturalism was slowly killing us, or at least killing some of us, brought down a heavy rain of criticism. Back in September 2002, to mark the approaching first anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US, I wrote on this page that the West's multiculturalism created conditions that encouraged the West's fanatical enemies. We were so busy being inclusive, denigrating our own culture, that we were not noticing what was happening. I suggested that Multicultural Man and his lazy cultural relativist thinking needed to be dismantled. A few others were saying the same thing. But not many.

Back then, to say such things was, according to many outraged letter writers and commentators, the height of "hate, ignorance and fear". Others claimed Multicultural Man was a straw man, that he was "not some left-wing man running around telling us to hate ourselves, it is simply another word for tolerance". Others said it was a form of "new racism" to speak of the inevitable, and in some cases, downright dangerous cultural clash encouraged by multiculturalism.

Back then, too many were living a dream about the virtues of tolerance without limits. When Sheik Omar Bakri Mohammed, a religious extremist, was exiled from Saudi Arabia, he was welcomed by the British. When he started preaching violence against the West, calling for a Muslim caliphate that included Britain, it was a sign of free speech in a multicultural society. When he set up the extremist group al-Muhajiroun, it went unremarked as a right of freedom of association.

Even in October 2001, after young British Muslim men turned up in Afghanistan fighting for the Taliban, few took notice. One Muslim leader from Luton Central Mosque warned of a "very bad situation in Luton". "There are some organisations here ... [that] deliberately set out to excite the young men with talk of jihad," he said. And bad things were happening. An al-Muhajiroun spokesman told one British newspaper that "there are more fighters joining jihad from Britain than anywhere else in the West ... It should serve as a strong warning to the British Government. We do not recognise British or any man-made laws ... only Allah's law." Again, few took any notice. Multicultural times rolled on.

How times have changed. When four young British Muslims set off from Luton, detonating four bomb blasts in London, most people were shaken out of their reverie. Eventually, it seems, reality bites. Sometimes slowly. Sometimes cruelly. Now, more than a few people are saying that tolerance is not as safe as it seems. That too much of the stuff can be a problem because it suggests to those who detest our values and our societies that we will not make judgments about what is right and what is wrong.

Those who once spoke of the ampersand citizen or the hyphenated citizen, meaning a migrant who was not required to declare allegiance to his new country or culture, or those who put quotation marks around "Western culture" as if it did not really exist in a multicultural society, might have been feted for their sophistication. Now, questions are being asked.

Now, even long-time supporters of multiculturalism, such as The Age's Pamela Bone, wonder aloud whether it is time for us to lay down some ground rules for those from different cultures who wish to live side by side with our culture. "Couscous yes, child marriage no?" she asked.

Why the question mark, Pamela? Let us get rid of the question marks and the ampersands and hyphenations that have blurred our thinking on what is right and good about Western culture. Let us state with some confidence that the core parts of our own culture - things like the rule of law, equal rights for women, separation of church and state, and democracy - are not up for negotiation.

When Muslim imams claim special exemptions from the Australian Electoral Commission allowing them not to vote because they claim democracy and Islam do not mix, let us say no to that. Democracy is a core value and if you do not believe in it, please leave.

Advocating multiculturalism for people from cultures with similar values was never going to be problematic. But when cultures differ sharply, multicultural policies that promote all cultures as equal lead us in all sorts of wrong directions. A young Aboriginal woman points to tribal law to excuse her for killing her philandering husband. An educated man, the father of a group of Pakistani gang rapists, claims they did not understand our culture.

Finally, more of us are saying "Hang on, some values are non-negotiable." Perhaps we can draw a shade on the '60s view that all cultures are equal. That utopian-driven decade is drawing to a close on other fronts too. Welfare is not all it's cracked up to be. No-fault divorce has not been the blessing it promised to be. It seems we may be growing up, learning to draw a line in at least some of the right places. Who knows which of the '60s sacred cows will be next?

please Kathianne...put it into proper perspective... the sixtees were a great era...it went to shit after 1968...so the only part of the sixtees that was bad was the last two years forward....geez...I grew up in the fiftees and sixtees...! :tng:

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